Thinking About Branding

Chris,

Great article. I have been struggling with this very thought and your perspective has framed up the context of branding in a simple way. This is especially valuable when we think of permission marketing and the ways in which different brands attempt to reach people.

I also appreciate the conversation…the brand is perhaps less about managing the expectations, than reflecting the consumers behaviour….good stuff.

Thanks again.

Chris, I must admit, I don’t get why you wrote this. I have helped more small-to-midsize companies and individuals with something to sell (such as authors or consultants), define a brand and use their branding & messaging to communicate messages of quality and credibility. The nicest people in the world may run and work for a company, but if they don’t present themselves as professionally as the competition (at least) and more creatively as their top competitors (to win deals), few people will know or care about who’s behind the company.

People have tried to use the word “brand” to describe things that are no more than personal attributes. A great brand is made up of many components, and I think without the visuals and creativity of the brands that drive markets and industry, the world would be a far duller place. Imagine Apple without some brand definition… it’s control, restraint, and unique attributes cannot be compared to a mark on a cow’s behind.

Like I said, I’m trying to figure out why you even posed the question, and what the question is, because I place a lot of value on branding and know how much it’s worth to the clients I serve and projects I work on.

In an exchange with Kris C she sent me to Wikipedia for the definition of brand – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand – and I was drawn to the statement “convey the essence of a company, product or service”.

Then I thought about Chris’ conclusion: “Is that what we can sum up as the main purpose of branding? Managing people’s expectations of our brand’s behavior? ”

And it seemed to me that creating a particular brand, as defined within each consumer’s mind, is a three-fold process. The ‘essence’ that the company wants the public to see/hear/believe, the customer’s personal experience with the products or services, and third party validation or criticism from friends, press, etc.

So, yes, branding from a marketing perspective is about managing/creating expectations by conveying the ‘essence’ of the product or service, but in the end, customer expectations will be affected most by experience.

As branding becomes more important to business success, companies are realizing that it takes many people to build a brand. It takes most of the employees, the company’s partners, its customers, the media, and the communities it operates in. You can no longer outsource your branding to an advertising agency expect to build an authentic, robust brand.

Branding is indeed a Marketing concept. If we separate Branding from Marketing, we’ll be counting out the book which represents the beggining of Modern Marketing (The Practice of Management- Drucker- 1954). As Drucker taught us, the only reason for any company or brand to exist is to organize itself based on consumer’s needs and perspectives.

A brand is a (relevant + differentiated) promise inside the prospect’s mind. A Brand is not what you say it is. it’s what THEY say it is”. Brands only exist from a Marketing perspective. Otherwise, they become schizophrenic just like we’ve seen many brands from the automotive industry, for example.

Thank you.

Gabriel Rossi- Brazil

At its core, “branding” speaks to an identity. On the outside, you have the logo, trade dress, etc, which are basically signals that “hey, this product comes from such and such company.” Through experimentation, repetition and habit, we all come to form expectations based on our experiences with that brand, whether personal or through others. The combination of these expectations and signals form the instinctual basis behind our expectations of a brand. Add to that marketing and messaging, and you can add a layer of perceive quality.

Example: Cartier, Porsche and Apple sell quality, sexy, cool, classy, smart. McDonald’s, Dollar Tree, Wal-Mart and Hyunday sell value.

The marketing/messaging/packaging creates the image. The imprint, if you will. Your experiences (either personal or by proxy) create the context for the imprint, and either validate it or debunk it. The logo simply serves as the vessel for those two elements of brand expectations. The chalice, if you will.

I see where you’re going with your thought thought process, but branding is not a behavioral expectation.

Great photo though. ;)

I think of branding as the “pavlov's law” of business. It is training your customers to think of you in a certain way. It takes time, but if that message is consistent, it makes it easy for your customers to know what to expect from your business.

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